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5/13/11

Ride Home 5/13

Because it was casual Friday, I wore my regular, dressed-down work clothes, namely jeans and a polo shirt (I was very dressed down). I saw no evidence "Guy in jeans and a polo shirt effect" so this horse is officially beaten dead. On my ride in, I rolled up only my right pant leg, but I double-cuffed on the way home. This revealed Thunder and Lightning (what I call my calves) and I regretted that I wasn't wearing cooler socks. The "cooler" socks I'm thinking of have Boba Fett on them, so...Anyway, I think if I rode to work in regular clothes more frequently, I'd want to get these shoes, which would require me to swap out to get different (SPD compatible) pedals and the whole excercise in vanity would require roughly a $200 outlay. Seems pretty vain, but then I mockingly refer to calves as Thunder and Lightning.
I saw bumper sticker that read "Jesus Drives a Cab." I thought Jesus walks. I saw another bumper sticker that read "Washington/Adams '89." Clever? Except that we all know that Adams and Washington weren't a ticket. I don't know if the car belonged to one of those Glenn Beck founding fathers worshippers, but that would explain the complete lack of actual historical knowledge (and caring about facts).
What do drivers think a horn does? In my experience, it can't cause traffic to go away. But I'm on a bike a lot, so what do I know? I only have a bell and that does jack nada. (Jack Nada was also the Padres shortstop in '87).
I followed a guy test riding a trek hybrid from Georgetown Revolution. He was on the bridge and seemed to be having a hard time with it. I don't think the Key Bridge is a great place to test ride a bike. It is apparently a great place to run into people you haven't seen in a long time and have a big group hug and take up the entire path. Thanks old ladies!
My decision to ride up Wilson or up the Custis is entirely determined by whether the light is green. Also, it would be really nice if someone (Arlington County maybe?) made a curb cut at the corner at the intersection of Lee Highway/Custis Trail and Nash in the direction of Nash Street. This would both a) help people in wheel chairs access the sidewalk without having to use the Marriott driveway and b) allow bicyclists to turn more easily into the near-side crosswalk if they'd like to cross the street to access Gateway Park. Just a suggestion.
Pretty slow day on the trail. Only a few bicyclists out and none of them were Bruce Springsteen. I only rode to Veitch where someone driving might have yelled a homophobic slur at me. Extra go to hell points for you (Fridays count double!). Though I do prefer my hate speech at 40 miles per hour.
There's a kind of cool feeling you get when you think that you're pedaling fast enough to stay in front of a car that's not necessarily slowing down to stay behind you. It's less cool when you realized that the car turned off two blocks ago and you've been pedaling really hard for absolutely no reason.
For or against: cyclists turning left as yellows turns to red?
I'm always paranoid that every time there's a delay in traffic moving forward that people (drivers behind me) think I'm causing it. You know, because I lack an internal combustion engine. Even when it's clear that the reason we're not moving forward is because the car three in front of me can't turn because of oncoming traffic or because the driver is looking down at his phone, I still think that I'm being blamed. I mean, ultimately, who gives a shit, but I still feel like turning around and screaming "IT'S NOT ME. I PROMISE." This would probably cause a stir and result in me actually delaying traffic. It'd be the Tell-Tale Heart of bike commuting.